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Do's And Don't of Facbook

According to The Social Media and Online PR Report, published by Econsultancy in association with bigmouthmedia, 86% of companies plan to spend more money on social media in 2010, and another 13% are planning to keep the same budget. 54% of companies say that the biggest barrier to increasing social media usage is a lack of resources. The study shows that only 10% of companies are not using any type of social media. Social media is here to stay.

Facebook statistics:

  • More than 500 million active users
  • 50% of their active users log on to Facebook in any given day
  • More than 50 million users update their status each day
  • More than 60 million status updates posted each day
  • More than 3.5 billion photos uploaded to the site each month
  • More than 5.5 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums, etc.) shared each week
  • More than 3.5 million events created each month
  • More than 1.6 million active Pages on Facebook
  • More than 1,000,000 local businesses have active Pages on Facebook
  • Pages have created more than 5.3 billion fans
Average User Figures
  • Average user has 130 friends on the site
  • Average user sends 8 friend requests per month
  • Average user spends more than 55 minutes per day on Facebook
  • Average user clicks the Like button on 9 pieces of content each month
  • Average user writes 25 comments on Facebook content each month
  • Average user becomes a fan of 2 Pages each month
  • Average user is invited to 3 events per month
  • Average user is a member of 12 groups
The current question is not whether or not you should be using social media, the question to be asking yourself is "How should I be using social media?"


Fan Page Do's and Don'ts (and How to Annoy Your Fans)


Do:

Target event invitations by location. You can target by country, state or even city. If you are having a happy hour or a wine club pick up party, do not send your invite to all fans - send it only to those in your area. The bigger the event the larger the radius. No one is going to travel 2 hours to go to today's happy hour.

Post interesting and relevant content! Keep your fans interested and engaged by providing interesting news, information, etc.

Create a short vanity URL. Any Fan page with more than 25 Fans can create a shortened URL for their page as opposed to the lang ones automatically created by facebook, similar to ours:
Get your URL out there! Once you have a short URL, put in in your signature, on business cards, marketing material, etc.
Link your fan page to your website with a "become a fan" button.

Link your blog to your fan page. If you have a blog, use Social RSS to have your blog content automatically transferred to Facebook.
Use the "send an update to fans" wisely - and sparingly. Most people's in-boxes are inundated and overuse will cause you to lose fans, not gain them, so save this for important messages. Post general updates and product info to your wall.
Accept or ignore causes, pages, etc. as appropriate and as you wish your customer’s to perceive you and your business (religious, political, etc.)
Engage your fans. Reply to their posts and respond to emails as you would your regular email in-box.
Update your page as frequently as makes sense for you and your business. Post photos, specials, recipes, ask opinions, etc. Keep it interesting!
Seriously consider allowing your fans the option to post. Many businesses have their page set so that only they can post, which can come off as very self-serving. Encourage engagement by your fans!
Save time and energy. Link your fan page to your Twitter to update both at once.
Post and tag your fans in photos of your events. However, use discretion when posting! You will not create good will if you post unflattering photos of anyone.
Post specials or special offers. Such as these recent posts: Cindy Winery: Join us for lunch today and receive 50% off our flatbreads or 1 glass of CW wine with mention of the word of the day: Pancetta. Starlight Wine Bar and Restaurant:Red Beans and Rice Tuesday! Heaping bowl of beans and rice served with grilled andouille and cornbread. ONLY $13 Every Tuesday.
Don't:
Send an invite to become a fan over and over. Once, maybe twice is enough. Sending more than is rude and intrusive.

Over use event invites. I have sometimes receives 4 or 5 invites from the same business within minutes. This is not a way to gain fans - it is a way to lose them.
Only use your fan page to sell, sell, sell. Yes, people realize that you are business, and you wish them to buy your product or wine, but who wants to go anywhere where they are just going to feel "sold to?". Mix it up and post some things just for fun and interest.
Instant message people as a means to sell something! (No, for the third time, I don't want to become an Avon Rep)
Instant message people with nothing to say. Assume that people are working, or at least have something to do. I get IM'd by people with a purpose "Can you be of assistance?" or with something specific to say it is fine. Getting IM's by someone I don't know with the only message being "Hi" is just annoying.
What has worked for you? Do you have tips for social media?

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Want to start a Blog?....Read this first!

Making a Quick Impact Online as a New Blogger

You have become adept at social media. Your next step is to start blogging on your own. There are many ways to begin. Study other bloggers’ work and then start to blog about your business and about your passions.
As the technology continues to be more and more developed, it is more important for than ever for business people to use blogging as one of their main avenues of communication. Content in the form of a website was considered the most advanced way of delivering content to other people for a very long time. However, the content found on websites is now deemed to be static. With the advent of blogs, which has been around for several years at this point, the content that is being shared online is dynamic. The content is fresh and new content is being offered (and delivered) on a very frequent and regular basis.
As a business person, you will be doing yourself and your business a tremendous disservice if you don’t start to blog about what you do, what you have to offer, and how you can help other people to solve their problems. Blogging is definitely a means to your being able to build relationships with other people and to interact in a very effective manner that will hopefully lead to greater success for you and your business.
As a new blogger, one of the challenges is to deliver regular, high-quality content on a frequent basis. It is one thing to be able to write a few blogs and be done with it. It is quite another thing to write and publish two or three blog articles a week on an ongoing basis until the end of time.  It is very important to build up your momentum when it comes to your blog. Once you have a rhythm established, you will find it less difficult to keep up the pace of frequent blog articles.
Being a blogger involves a serious commitment. You can’t simply start writing and expect to be a success in one second. Just like it is with all relationships in life, you need to build your online relationships. You very well may someday be earning a nice amount of money from your blog, although that could be down the road a bit. Initially, however, you should focus on your first (and one of your most important) objective, which is connecting on a personal level with other people. You have made a commitment to creatively come up with new ideas on a regular basis and the commitment is not only for you and your business but is also for the people whom you are trying to reach. As a new blogger, in the beginning, there are several stages that you will experience. They are:
  • Listening: When you first start to blog, you should do as much research as possible. You should research topics about which you are interested. Additionally,  you should read the blog articles of other successful bloggers so that you can focus on what they do that has made them successful.
     
  • Euphoria: You have done a lot of research and you are confident that you are ready to actually start writing and to share your interesting and valuable thoughts with other people. You may very well experience a feeling of euphoria after you have launched your blog. People will start to read what you have written and you will be on top of the world.
     
  • Fear: Once you have moved past the initial stage, you may see that your readers are not reading your blog articles as faithfully and consistently as they were in the beginning. You begin to feel afraid that you won’t be able to come up with new and exciting topics to keep them enticed.
     
  • Being in control: Once you are more deeply into your blog writing, you may start to feel that you must write. It may not seem as though you are having as much fun anymore. The longer you think about it, the more frustrated you start to feel.
     
  • A feeling of isolation: You get the sense that, of all of the bloggers in the world, you are the one with the most difficulty when it comes to creating new ideas. You start to feel as though you are working in a vacuum and that everyone else has a large, good-quality readership and that those readers interact regularly with the other bloggers. It will come to you also.
     
  • Resentment: You start to feel resentful about having this huge commitment that you have made to blogging every week. The mere idea of blogging makes you uncomfortable.
     
  • Acceptance: If you did the right thing all along when it comes to your blog, you will have moved past all of the obstacles that you felt were preventing you from becoming a successful blogger. You will begin to understand why you made the commitment to blog in the first place. You start to feel excited about writing your blog and striving to come up with new ideas on a regular basis.
     
  • Determination: At this point, you have put a blogging strategy in place. Your goals should be reasonable and not impossible to reach. You will need to develop the blog by continuing to offer valuable, useful, and perceptive information on a consistent basis to your readers. Another one of your goals should be to engage your readers and generate interesting and thought-provoking discussions on all sorts of interesting topics.
     
  • Constantly learning: Once you start blogging, you will see that you are also learning a great deal from other people. The more you learn, the more interesting and insightful information you can offer to others.
Conclusion
The stages that have been described are, in some ways, very similar to the stages of grief. Not unlike those stages, it is important to persevere until you have gotten to the point emotionally where you feel really upbeat and excited about what you are doing and until you gain the confidence to know that your contribution to other people (in this case, in the form of a blog) is valued and helpful.
 We are pleased to provide you with the insightful comments contained herein. Please contact us at CompuKol Communications for further discussion on how we might be able to assist you and your team and don’t forget to “like” our Facebook page.

About the Author.  Carolyn Cohn is the Chief Editor of CompuKol Communications LLC. Mrs. Cohn has a wealth of experience in business writing as well as having a strong editorial background. She manages all of the company’s writers, journalists and editors as well as writing, editing and publishing several business articles a week on a consistent basis, which are syndicated globally. Mrs. Cohn has run several editorial departments for other companies. She has over 25 years of editorial experience and her expertise covers a wide range of media, such as online editing, and editing books, journal articles, abstracts, and promotional and educational materials. Throughout her career, Mrs. Cohn has established and maintained strong relationships with professionals from a wide variety of companies. The principle that governs her work is that all words need to be edited. Mrs. Cohn earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo. Mrs. Cohn is a member of the American Medical Writers Association (AMWA).

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!!Attention Realtors!!!





Here’s how Realtors can leverage the power of social media for their business.

Get yourself out there – Make sure that you are on Facebook and updating regularly with your newest properties. Make sure you’re connecting your inventory with Google friendly sites such as Trulia and Zillow so that your homes will show up when prospective buyers Google certain neighboorhoods.
Understand the medium – Find out how people use Twitter to search for homes (much in the same way Twitter can be used to search for jobs). Make sure that you’re using the same terms that searchers are. If there’s a preferred hashtag for your city (#phx for Phoenix, for example), make sure to use it.
Utilize the technology – With a $100 Flip video camera and some basic movie editing software, you can use YouTube as a showcase for home tours and customer testimonials. A very low entry cost to open up a whole world of buyers.
And of course, make sure to read over all the other advice we have for Small Businesses getting into Social Media; much of it is applicable no matter what industry you’re in.

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Are you an expert?....Do you wanna be?

Using Social Media to Become a Subject Matter Expert

The arrival of the Internet has drastically changed the way we do business.  Therefore, it has become increasingly important to differentiate yourself — to stand out among your competitors and to be known as an expert in your area.  Why is it so important?  The answer is simple. People simply want to deal with someone who is credible and knows his subject well, and the only way to earn that confidence is to be an "expert" in your area.
The arrival of social media has made it much easier to be known as an expert in your field.  You can market yourself, your products and services, and at the same time, stay in close contact with your clients and customers, while also networking with new people.
Here are two ways in which this can be done:
  1. Using social media to promote a product, service, skill, expertise, etc, referred to as social media marketing.
     
  2. Using it as a medium to network with new clients and develop active relationships or social media networking.
The bottom line is this:  you are looking to build a "relationship" — a level of trust between you and your customers or visitors to your site. 
To become an "expert" in your respective field, use social media in the following ways:
  1. Create a positive brand image. Make sure that you are seen as somebody who is knowledgeable and well informed. Develop your personal brand by establishing a reputation in your niche. Always be sure to present yourself in a way that ensures that you will be perceived by people in the right way.
     
  2. Join various social networks. Create your own profile page on all networking sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc, or any networking site that is relevant to your industry or niche.  Be sure to regularly post content on these sites.
     
  3. Participate in online forums and discussions. You can answer questions posted by other users, spread information about your work, as well as discuss topics associated with your field.
     
  4. Create your own blog and website. Blogging is one of the simplest ways to share information on things you want to talk about.  By posting quality content on your blog, you can not only demonstrate your knowledge but also have rightful ownership over it.
     
  5. Maintain and grow your network. Again, sites like Facebook and LinkedIn are excellent places to connect with people working in your area of expertise. 
Conclusion
With the help of social media, you can create a unique identity, distinguish yourself from everyone else, and promote yourself as an expert in your chosen field.

About the Author.  Marco Giunta is a Senior Business Development Executive and the author of the book: Rethinking Sales. He is a leading expert in Global Outsourcing with a focus on banking, financial services and other Industry sectors and has a long list of clients. Mr. Giunta is a speaker and presenter. He has led start-ups, business strategy groups, technology think tanks and has experience as a career coach. Visit Marco’s website at marcogiunta.com.

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Not geting Shared on facebook?

7 Ways to Get Your Blog Posts Shared On Facebook

Article Complements of ProBlogger

This guest post is by Dan Zarella of DanZarella.com.
Want to maximize sharing of your content on Facebook? Here are seven tips that are sure to help.

1. Publish on the weekend

Many companies block Facebook access from the office, so sharing of stories on Facebook tends to increase over the weekend. Experiment with publishing your stories on Saturday and Sunday.

2. Dig deeper into the news

Why” and “how” rank among the commonest words in the titles of most-shared blog posts. Facebook users want to get beyond the soundbite headline. They’re also fans of list-based superlatives like “best” and “most.”

3. Include specific digits

Just as Facebookers want to get beyond the headlines, they also like specific numbers. Articles with digits in them do better on Facebook than articles without them.

4. Don’t be a social media dork

Unlike Twitter users, most Facebookers are into social media for social media’s sake, they’re not social media dorks. “Google,” “iPhone,” and “Twitter” rank among the least shareable words.

5. Write simply and plainly

As the complexity of an article increase, the degree to which it gets shared on Facebook decreases. The same holds true for flowery language replete with adjectives and adverbs. Pick up a copy of The Elements of Style to help refine your writing.

6. On Facebook, sex and positivity sell

It may seem obvious, but it’s true: content with a sexual edge does well on Facebook. Of course not every brand can play that game, but there is another useful story in this data. Articles that are positive do better than negative ones.

7. Include video

Because Facebook has features that allow for easier and more engaging video sharing, articles that include videos tend to do very well on Facebook. On Twitter, not so much.

Have you found these tips to be true when you’ve shared content on Facebook? What other advice can you add?
The Facebook Marketing Book was written by Alison Zarrella and her husband Dan.
About Guest Blogger
This post was written by a guest contributor. Please see their details in the post above. If you'd like to guest post for ProBlogger check out our Write for ProBlogger page for details about how YOU can share your tips with our community.

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